“I have never seen such disorganization around the Stade de France (…) I am very angry”reacted Stéphane Troussel, socialist president of the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis, Monday May 30 on franceinfo, after the Champions League final marked by scenes of violence near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Saturday 28 may.
>> Final of the Champions League: the device for maintaining order around the Stade de France strongly criticized abroad
“I demand a rapid, transparent investigation into these dysfunctions”he added, pointing to the fact that “this is not the first time that there have been major events at the Stade de France”. It was indeed the third Champions League final organized in this venue.
franceinfo: Have you noticed any disorganization for yourself?
Stephane Roussel: I have never seen such disorganization around the Stade de France. This is not the first time that there have been major events in this enclosure because the Stade de France has existed in Saint-Denis for twenty-four years. This is the third Champions League final that has been organised. Never, never, have I seen such a level of disorganization. I am very angry. I do not want Seine-Saint-Denis and its inhabitants to be the scapegoats for this disorganization. I call for a rapid, transparent and thorough investigation into these dysfunctions and this disorganization.
Is the presence of counterfeit notes, in your opinion, the main reason for this disorganization?
The organizers discover that, in this type of event, there is the risk of counterfeit tickets? Finally, no one can find out since, it seems, UEFA itself was not in favor of the edition of printed tickets and favored, precisely, the edition of electronic tickets. If this provision had been privileged, it is because there was a risk that there would be these counterfeit tickets and therefore an influx of spectators and supporters in considerable numbers. I have never seen so many spectators around the Stade de France a few minutes before kick-off. When I managed to get in, it felt like the stadium was already full. So there were obviously people who had nothing to do around the Stade de France. In addition, I also ask for transparency on the police personnel who were deployed around the Stade de France. I would like to know how they were distributed. How many were there on the Champs-Élysées? How many were there in Nation? How much around the Stade de France? We need hard numbers.
LIVE – Fiasco of the Champions League final ➡️ “Never have I seen such disorganization. This is the 3rd Champions League final that is organized. I am very angry, I demand an investigation”, declares Stéphane Troussel, president of Seine-Saint-Denis. pic.twitter.com/m27stjPOnL
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) May 30, 2022
The Paris police headquarters, in its first report, mentions the presence of 300 to 400 young people from sensitive neighborhoods. Have you noticed it too?
I am angry this morning because I do not accept that, as always, the extreme right is unleashed against its favorite object of hatred, Seine-Saint-Denis and its inhabitants. I will not accept that we are the scapegoats. We discover that in these events there are a few hundred individuals, thugs from all over Île-de-France, who meet on the occasion of an exceptional event? Couldn’t the intelligence services and the police have anticipated this type of situation? It is clear that it is not these few hundred individuals who weigh against these potential tens of thousands of spectators who did not have tickets and who were nevertheless gathered there.
Is France able to organize such events, one year from the Rugby World Cup and two years from the Paris Olympics?
In any case, what happened on Saturday must be a very serious alert. It has to be a collective alert on the anticipation, the volume of resources deployed, in terms of stewards, private security around the stadium, police resources, organization of transport, consumption of alcohol around of the stadium… There has to be a precise analysis of what happened. Let light be shed on all the dysfunctions, including the manner in which the police forces are deployed and the doctrine of employment and maintenance of public order in our country so that the next organizers, of the cup of the world of rugby and the Olympics, can anticipate in a very serious way.